Cubeseed: Mobile Application
Objective
The objective of the Cubeseed Agro-Commerce app is to revolutionize the agricultural landscape in West Africa by empowering farmers to maintain ownership of their products from seed to market. The app aims to eliminate middlemen, foster farmer-investor connections, and enhance overall productivity within the agricultural industry. The project seeks to address the unique challenges faced by African farmers and create a platform that facilitates seamless interactions among various stakeholders.
My Role
As the designer for the Cubeseed app, my role was to translate the project’s vision into a user-centered app design that catered specifically to the needs of farmers. I collaborated with cross-functional teams, conducted user research, created prototypes, and iterated on design solutions to create an intuitive and impactful user experience.
Challenges
User-Centric Approach: Designing an app that serves the diverse needs of farmers across Africa presented a challenge. Ensuring that the app resonated with users of varying educational backgrounds, technological literacy, and farming practices required thoughtful design decisions.
Complex Ecosystem: Creating an app that seamlessly connected farmers, investors, input sellers, service providers, processors/storage, and the marketplace while maintaining simplicity in user interactions demanded strategic design to prevent overwhelming users.
Remote Collaboration: With team members spread across different time zones, effective communication and collaboration were critical challenges. Maintaining a cohesive design process and ensuring alignment on design decisions required careful coordination.
Design Decisions
User-Centric Interface: The app’s design prioritized the needs of farmers by creating an intuitive navigation structure and streamlined workflows. The goal was to reduce the back-and-forth between screens and provide farmers with only the necessary features.
Task-Focused Dashboards: The design focused on presenting farmers with task-driven dashboards that highlighted their next steps, required resources, and where to obtain them. This minimized cognitive load and improved user efficiency.
Engagement and Education: Recognizing the importance of education and up-to-date farming techniques, the app included features to connect farmers with courses and certifications. Additionally, communication tools enabled farmers to connect with peers and trade knowledge.
Color Palette and Accessibility: A consistent color palette was chosen to create a cohesive design across the platform. Accessibility testing ensured that all users, regardless of their abilities, could effectively use the app.
Results
The Cubeseed app achieved its goal of empowering African farmers by offering an innovative and user-friendly platform. By addressing the challenges of middlemen, facilitating connections between farmers and investors, and streamlining farming processes, the app revolutionized the agricultural landscape. The user-centered design approach led to positive feedback from farmers, validating the platform’s usability and effectiveness.
The app’s impact is evident in increased farmer autonomy, enhanced communication and collaboration, and improved access to resources. By bridging technology and agriculture, the Cubeseed app becomes a catalyst for positive change within West Africa’s farming community, laying the foundation for improved productivity and sustainable growth.
